Rosie O’Donnell is opening up about her health journey and speaking out about going on Mounjaro for weight-loss.
“When my mom died, all of us children gained weight,” O’Donnell, 64, recalled to People on Thursday, July 23, referring to her mother’s death in 1973. “My father would give us a one hundred dollar bill and we would go to Foodtown to do the food shopping. Now if you’re 11-years-old and you’re shopping for a family of five, there’s nothing nutritious about it. It was Entenmann’s and Cap’n Crunch and we would always say, ‘Subtotal please,’ and when it got near one hundred, we’d put back the chicken and the hamburger meat. Everyone got heavy. Everyone was in such grief and trauma.”
“And so Mounjaro saved my life,” she continued. “I’ve lost a pound or two a month for three years. I really wish I could do commercials for Mounjaro and they would drop the price instead of paying me. Because when I see people struggling with obesity, I want to say I know the shame that we carry and the humiliation that is dealt to people who are overweight.”
While reflecting on her career, O’Donnell added, “When I would do late night, my biggest concern wasn’t my set, it was, did I look fat? The first time I did a talk show, it was Pat Sajak and people were saying ‘You were so good,’ and I’d go, ‘How did I look in that blazer?’ I wasn’t even heavy then.”
O’Donnell, who was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes three years ago, explained that she began taking Mounjaro around that time. She has since lost about 60 lbs since going on the weight-loss drug.
“It’s a miracle drug,” she said. “I was stunned how it quieted the food noise. I’ve had trouble with my weight my whole life. I know some people are ashamed to talk about it but I wanted to share how it helped me and I don’t like secrets as a whole.”
Now, O’Donnell said that she feels “much healthier and more powerful in my physicality.” While on her health journey, O’Donnell also recently underwent a deep plane facelift — which tightened skin in her lower face after losing weight.
“I had two very large what they call ‘marionette lines,’” she said. “It made me look sad and people in Ireland were saying, ‘Rosie are you all right? and I’m like, it’s my face. I actually feel happy here.”
“Many of my friends in L.A. had deep plane facelifts and they told me how much better they felt,” O’Donnell continued.
O’Donnell explained that she interviewed doctors, including one who suggested putting a wire through her head to “pick up” her cheeks — which she passed on.
“I didn’t want my face to be frozen or to be unrecognizable,” O’Donnell noted.
While O’Donnell had confided in friends, she didn’t make her facelift public until people began telling her she looked “so much better” and asking what she was doing.
“I didn’t want to be one of those people who says, ‘Oh nothing….’ Just like with the Mounjaro. I didn’t want people who are struggling with their weight to feel like something was wrong with them,” she said. “So why do I look like this? $90,000 dollars. I was worried about the cost. I don’t like to waste money. And I would never spend that on a car.”
